Spending on media is increasing

Media consumption Swiss private households are spending more on media every year. The most money is spent on IT and telecoms. 
Swiss Press Association Mr. and Mrs. Swiss in the wallet
and was accompanied by project manager Thérèse Ruedin from the Ruedin
Consulting GmbH in Herrliberg for a secondary statistical analysis,
how much respondents have spent on their media consumption in the last year
were made. This so-called media budget already took place last year.
July attracted a great deal of attention in the industry. The second edition now
first comparisons and shows that in 2005 the total expenditure of all
private households by 3.1 percent compared to the previous year to 10.3
billion francs.

On average, a Swiss private household therefore spends
Media content, access channels and media carriers spent 3140 francs,
140 francs more than in 2004. 31.3 percent of the total went to
the IT and telecom sector, i.e. for computers, Internet and telephony
(also expenses for downloads, cell phone data services, value-added services
etc.). 22.7 percent was spent on television. In third place
The press (subscriptions and individual sales) is in second place with 17.7 percent. 2004
expenditure here amounted to 20.2 percent. For so-called consumer
households spent 14.2 percent on electronics (home electronics), and 14.2 percent on
7.2 percent for books, 4.7 percent for radio and 2.2 percent for movies.

Printland Switzerland remains stable
With 1.8 billion issues for 2654 available press titles, the
readership in the print country of Switzerland remains loyal to the press. Nevertheless
In the previous year, CHF 1.9 billion was spent on press products. Slightly
Kiosk sales also declined from CHF 720 million to CHF 701 million.
The three best-selling titles in the daily press, regional
The weekly press and Sunday press are SonntagsBlick (280280 copies sold) and
copies), Blick (262262) and the Tages-Anzeiger (231182), followed by
Berner Zeitung, Le Matin dimanche, SonntagsZeitung, Mittelland Zeitung,
NZZ, Südostschweiz and NLZ. In the public, financial and
business press are Beobachter, Schweizer Illustrierte and Das
Best/Sélection. The special press category is led by K-Tipp, Saison
Kitchen and balance.

People in Switzerland obviously like to read. Book sales have increased by 2
percent to 736 million francs. Already in 2005, sales
by 2.7%, reversing the negative trend of previous years.
However, the Internet is still a long way from being exhausted. For
The Swiss spent CHF 222 million on theatrical films.
12.5 percent less than in the previous year (253 million). The global
The decline in visitor numbers is also noticeable here in Germany.

More expenditure on radio and television
Although private households spent CHF 462 million, an increase of CHF 12 million was recorded.
more for radio reception, but only for the receivers.
22 million francs, 9 million less than in 2004, compared with 2003 (52 million).
the decline of 30 million francs is enormous. The reason: radio can be sold via
cell phones, MP3 players or the Internet.

At +9.9 percent, however, the television budget increased sharply. The
expenditure amounted to CHF 2.3 billion. The new flat-screen televisions
844 million, which accounted for around a quarter (844 million) of the increase.
of expenditure. 802 million francs are attributable to
TV reception fees (+2.7%), 687 million (+3.5%) to cable subscription fees for
Radio and TV. While revenues for cable connections are now only slightly
grow - 89 percent of all households use cable for radio and television.
TV reception -, sales of digital television are growing, albeit at a slower pace.
at a low level, more dynamic.

Battle of the recording industry
In 2005, the Swiss spent around 2.3 billion Swiss francs on
home electronics, including radio and TV. Of this, 1.5
billion francs on hi-fi, video and gaming. For the first time, the study
data on music downloads. Sales of LPs, MCs, CDs and DVDs
According to IFPI Switzerland (the Swiss music industry association), audio is
producers) again increased by 3 percent to CHF 224 million.
decreased. Legal music downloads (1.72 million songs) beat only
with 3 million francs. The industry is still fighting for the
Protection of intellectual property when obtaining music online. The structure
of a legal online market will still take years, it is about new
technical solutions to clarify rights in the long term as well as the
Establishment of new and complex billing systems.

The number of DVDs sold remained stable, although sales declined due to
price reductions fell by 11.3 percent to CHF 217 million. With
TV series that are particularly popular with the Swiss include
"Desperate Housewives". VHS tapes will soon be a thing of the past
belong to. Their sales slumped by 86.2 percent.

Private households spent CHF 271 million on gaming (+4%). Almost
every second household owns a video game console. In the
home electronics sector (CHF 1.6 billion) are flat-screen TVs and
MP3 devices were a big hit. With televisions, the industry made more than
half of its turnover, sales of MP3 devices doubled
compared to the previous year.

Mobile content is booming
Based on the MA-Net study by Wemf, it can be seen that in 2005 2.9
million Swiss people regularly surf the Internet.
Experts estimate that online shopping is on the rise. The amount for
Downloads of music, films, videos, software etc. is limited to CHF 170.
per year (+28.6%). While the values in use in 2003
Mobile area, for example for service and information services,
entertainment-oriented further education, download of games, videos
and music could still be largely neglected, the
150 million in 2004 and CHF 225 million in 2005 (+50%).
The rapid rate of increase will continue.

However, the growth of the
Broadband Internet connections. There are currently 1.7 million installed, 60
percent of this is estimated to be in private households. Sales growth
slowed down in 2005. On the hardware side, notebooks are experiencing the
the greatest popularity (+10.5%).

Experts generally estimate the growth rates in the multimedia sector at
high. The growth drivers are digitalization and the
Improving the capacity of the network landscape. Better image and
Sound quality should promote individualized media use, it says
also in the study. (All details at
www.medienbudget.ch).

René Worni